This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2002-128028 filed Apr. 30, 2002, No. 2002-184008 filed Jun. 25, 2002 and No. 2002-274639 filed Sep. 20, 2002, in the Japanese Patent Office, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to information recording methods and apparatuses, information processing apparatuses, information recording systems and computer-readable storage media, and more particularly to an information recording method for recording information on an information recording medium, an information recording apparatus for recording information on an information recording medium using such an information recording method, an information processing apparatus which is capable of making access to such an information recording medium, an information recording system which includes such information processing apparatus and information recording apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for causing a computer to record information on an information recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, functions of personal computers have improved, thereby making it possible for the personal computers to treat audio-visual information such as music and video. Since the amount of information included in the audio-visual information is extremely large, optical discs, such as Compact Disc-Rewritable (CD-RW) and Digital Versatile Disc-Rewritable (DVD+RW), which have an extremely large storage capacity and have become inexpensive, are now regarded as suitable information recording media for storing the audio-visual information. The DVD can store approximately 7 times the amount of data storable in the CD having the same diameter as the DVD. As a result, it has become popular to use an optical disc drive as an information recording apparatus which records information on the information recording medium and forms a peripheral device of the personal computer.
The CD family optical discs include CD-ROM, CD-Recordable (CD-R) and CD-RW. The DVD family optical discs include DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-Recordable (DVD−R), DVD−RW, DVD+Recordable (DVD+R) and DVD+Rewritable (DVD+RW).
In the rewritable optical discs such as the CD-RW, DVD−RW and DVD+RW, it is necessary to make a random access to a spiral or concentric recording region of the optical disc when recording the information on and reproducing the information from the optical disc. The recording on the optical discs such as the CD-RW, DVD-RW and DVD+RW is carried out according to respective standards or the like.
For example, in the case of the CR-RW, the track is divided into units called packets, and the information is recorded in packets. Such a recording system is often referred to as a packet write system. This packet write system can be categorized into two kinds, namely, a fixed-length packet write system according to which the amount of user data included in each packet is constant (for example, 64 kbytes), and a variable-length packet write system according to which the amount of user data included in each packet is variable. A file system for the optical disc, which employs the fixed-length packet write system, is called a Universal Disk Format (UDF).
In the CD-RW which employs the UDF, it is necessary to carry out the formatting before recording data on the CD-RW. The formatting is an initializing process which records the dummy data on an entire recording region or a specified recording region of the CD-RW before recording the user data on the CD-RW.
In the case of the DVD+RW, the user data can be recorded on the DVD+RW without carrying out the initializing process (formatting) with respect to the recording region of the DVD+RW. However, if an unrecorded portion having no data recorded therein exists within the recording region of the DVD+RW, it is impossible to reproduce the recorded data from the DVD+RW on a DVD-ROM drive, for example. In other words, compatibility of the DVD+RW and the DVD-ROM cannot be maintained if the unrecorded portion exists within the recording region of the DVD+RW. In order to maintain the compatibility of the DVD+RW and the DVD-ROM, it is also necessary to carry out the formatting with respect to the DVD+RW so as to record the dummy data on the entire recording region or a specified recording region of the DVD+RW before recording the user data on the DVD+RW.
However, because the storage capacities of the optical discs have increased considerably and the storage capacities of the optical discs are extremely large compared to the storage capacities of flexible discs, for example, it now takes more time to carry out the formatting with respect to the optical disc. Hence, even if the user obtains an optical disc, it is impossible for the user to immediately start recording information on the optical disc, and the user must first carry out the formatting with respect to the optical disc.
For example, when formatting the entire recording region of the CD-RW having a storage capacity of 650 MB, it takes 30 minutes or more to carry out the formatting even in a two-times speed mode. It takes a considerably longer time when formatting the DVD+RW having approximately 7 times the storage capacity of the CD-RW.
Accordingly, an information recording and reproducing apparatus which is capable of immediately carrying out the recording and reproduction even with respect to an unformatted optical disc has been proposed in a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-134799, for example. According to this proposed information recording and reproducing apparatus, predetermined information is recorded in a lead-in region when a formatting request is received from a host unit, and recording and reproduction enable information is thereafter notified to the host unit, so as to start the formatting. If a recording or reproducing request is received from the host unit during the formatting, the formatting is interrupted, and the recording or reproduction is carried out with a priority over the formatting. The formatting is resumed when the recording or reproduction ends.
Such a method of carrying out the formatting by utilizing the time in which no recording or reproducing request is received from the host unit is often referred to as a background formatting. The background formatting is employed in various optical discs such as the DVD+RW and the CD-RW having the Mount Rainier specifications.
The background formatting enables the optical disc to be ejected from the optical disc drive, even during the formatting. When the optical disc is ejected from the optical disc drive during the formatting, the formatting is not yet completed with respect to the optical disc which is ejected. Hence, when ejecting the optical disc such as the DVD+RW in this case, a so-called Temporary Lead-Out (TLO) is recorded at a predetermined position of the optical disc, so that the information can be reproduced from the ejected optical disc on the DVD-ROM drive or the like, that is, so that compatibility may be maintained between the DVD+RW and the DVD-ROM.
For example, when the DVD+RW drive receives a write request to write user data with respect to the DVD+RW which is recorded with the TLO described above, the user data is recorded in the specified recording region. However, if an unrecorded region exists between the TLO and a recording start address, the background formatting is automatically resumed after recording the user data.
Recently, various portable information processing apparatuses have been proposed, including lap-top (notebook type) personal computers and palm-top (sub-notebook type) personal computers, which are compact, light-weight and easy to carry. One of the characterizing features of the portable information processing apparatus is the ability to operate under various operating conditions, and in order to do so, an AC power supply and a battery can be used as a driving power supply of the portable information processing apparatus.
When the portable personal computer having a built-in optical disc drive is driven by the battery, the optical disc drive is also driven by this battery. For this reason, when the background formatting is automatically resumed as described above, the power supply may be shut down during the background formatting due to insufficient amount of power (capacity) remaining in the battery. In addition, the automatically resumed background formatting may consume a considerably larger amount of power of the battery than expected, thereby making it impossible for the user to carry out a desired process using the remaining amount of power of the battery. In a worst case, the file information may not be recorded correctly on the optical disc, and it may become impossible to reproduce the file or additionally write to the file.